Beating the Cold
by Illustrator
Summary: PreAeris's death. Aeris finds Vincent in the mansion as a result of her curiosity. AerisVincent in the making, romance to come sometime.
1. Enter

_This is my second release of this story. I'd hate to bore you, but I will tell you why._

_It has been two years since I looked at this story. After purchasing Advent Children, I looked at this again, and felt it had some sort of promise. Somewhere, at least. I am touching it up a bit, re-posting, and then adding on until I can actually say I have a finished piece of work. Too bad I forgot the neat twist at the end – after two years, you forget details like that._

_I don't own anything._

Ch1

It was quiet, and life was in a good spot for things being the way they were. It was as though someone paused time in the nicest way possible. Aeris was off in town, looking at flowers here and there, not really taking time with anyone or anything. Tifa was hanging off of Cloud, trying not to make anything seem obvious, although it really was. Barret was just trying to stay out of everyone's way, swearing whenever someone made him just a little mad, like always. Red just went back into the hotel room and curled up in the corner, falling asleep.

Aeris walked around the quaint little town. She couldn't believe that two people like Cloud and Tifa could grow up in a town like Nibelheim, and turn out the way they did. She though people from here were quiet, kind, and minded their business. Not to mention dressed. But, Tifa and Cloud seemed more robust and loud than they did. He always ran about, dancing and having his problems, and always trying to get on the good side of Aeris, whereas Tifa was just so different from everyone; scantily clad and active all the time. She couldn't really see them growing up here.

She walked up some stairs, fixing her skirt a bit, since it was starting to wrinkle and rise a little bit. Her eyes met with a big mansion that seemed old and outdated. The grass wasn't that tall around the deserted chateau, but only because it was all dead from lack of care. Off to the right side of the mansion was a gate, and behind that appeared to be a large gray mountain with a few caves here and there, so she decided she wasn't going through the gate. She remembered Cloud said that she probably shouldn't go in the mansion, since he had heard that it was haunted or something, but her curiosity got the best of her. She pushed open the rusty gate, and it screeched so loud that she swore it echoed through the mountains itself. She looked behind, her shoulders hunched in nervousness, only to see that no one had noticed. For some odd reason she really wanted to go in there, and she wasn't about ready to have Cloud or Tifa run up to her and tell her the whole story of 'It's haunted, so you shouldn't!' She walked down the little path all the way to the door and she grabbed the handle lightly, twisting it and pushing on the door, but it was jammed. She pushed harder and harder, although still softly, since she didn't want to make a ruckus. She sighed sharply, blowing her walnut brown hair away from her eyes, then pushed sharply all in one blow, shoving the door open and stumbling in a bit.

She looked around and noticed that the place was old and dilapidated. There were holes in the ceiling and boards were protruding from the floor. Sunlight hit spots on the walls and floors, leaving streams of light through the air. The house even smelled old, like an antique store, and it was enamored in dust. Just walking picked up a cloud behind your feet. She shrugged it off and lightly shut the door, but left it open just enough so it couldn't get stuck again. She walked to the center of the foyer, seeing that the chandelier that used to hang down had fallen to the floor, broken glass and mangled iron bars lying everywhere. She went to the left staircase and went up slowly, hearing the boards individually creek at a different tone as she went up. The large window at the top of the staircase had cracks and dust, so you couldn't really see through it, and instead it seemed more yellow than anything. Once the stairs were brought together, they separated again, and Aeris took the left side. She was led to what seemed to be a study of some sort. The large white doors were enveloped in dust, giving it a gray hue, and the carpet was old and rigid from years of rain and sleet poured on it, never to be cleaned. There, in the corner, lie an abandoned piano, a layer of gray covering a vast majority of it, the top cocked open by a little stick on the inside, and the keys seemed to be clean..? She looked over at it in wonder, raising an eyebrow. She got closer to the right side of it, looking at that stick and how frail it appeared; she wondered why it wasn't already broken. She went back to the keys and laid her fingers atop of them, contemplating a song in her mind. She let her hands push them down, and as soon as she did, the stick under the top gave away in a snap, letting the top crash down on the frame, shaking violently in a cloud of dust. The noise echoed throughout the whole chateau as she gasped for breath, her heart beating rapidly, and she walked away hurriedly, shutting the doors behind her. She pressed her back against the doors, catching her breath the best she could, closing her eyes lightly as she thought. What if the others heard that..?

She pushed off the door lightly, shaky about continuing, but she pressed on anyway. Aeris descended down the small stairway, then across to the next one, still on the upper level. She pushed open the door and turned right to enter a small hallway. There was just one door the way she was faced, and two or three down behind her. She entered the little room, seeing an empty old chair that looked so old that it must have been from hundreds of years ago. There was also a cabinet or two, covered in dust so badly that you wouldn't see what was in them anymore. In the corner lay a peculiar piece. It looked like a stone chamber with a carving of a door in it, laid in brick and soldered horrifically and seemingly hurriedly. She walked up to it, laying her hand on the door, which sent a shiver through her entire body. She grabbed across her chest with her other arm, and pushed open the door with the other. She couldn't really make sense of what she saw next, so she let her eyes adjust to the dark before she could see.

It wasn't really a staircase more or less than it was just a walkway, twirling down to the ground, made entirely of stone with wood overlaid on top of it. She walked down slowly, holding on to the wall for support in the dark. You could hear the compressed air whistle lightly, and her heart raced violently, but she continued down anyway. It seemed to take forever, just walking down and then down some more into nothingness. The further on she went, the more she could even feel the air against her fair skin. How cold it was to be in short sleeves and feel such a breeze on you. She shivered lightly, her hands becoming even dirtier and her hair brushing against her face with the zephyr.

Finally the winding was over and she was at the bottom at last. She looked down a desolate hallway, which seemed to have nothing in it with promise. She walked slowly, the wind teasing her hair, pushing her skirt behind her legs a bit. She looked left and right for a doorway, but found none, until she got to the very end. She pushed it open and saw what seemed to be a laboratory full of just broken glasses and beakers, dusted scalpels and other surgical instruments of the sort. She walked between a table and some shelves to look at them, finding a bunch of different beakers with scratches on them, all labeled different letters with numbers as well, with little or no information on them at all. Something caught her eye to the left, and she saw a hallway connecting the lab to a library. She turned and walked out of the small, cramped area, looking at books here and there. They all had someone to do with Gaea, or Jenova, and that of the sort. Endless books on materias, uses of materias, the different kinds of materias, and old legends that seemed to enthrall this Jenova. Police cases, instruction manuals, but something drew her attention more than anything else. There was some sort of journal lying on the table where a bunch of open books sat. She seated herself in the empty chair, which didn't look too shabby and flipped open a page. Apparently a scientist who used to work here wrote of his studies and everything else that had taken place. A family used to live in this house years and years before Shinra took it over and handed it to Sephiroth and his men for studies. Strange experiments took place involving Mako energy and such, trying to create super-human creatures when fused with great deals of mako, completely inverting their DNA to recreate them into something new. They spoke of one who used to be an agent of some sort who got injured, and they did some experiments on him. They fused him with something; she couldn't read his writing too well from here on out, it looked as though he wrote it hurriedly, as if he were running out of time, and she could only pick out every other word. Aeris guessed that it might have said something about placing a claw on him instead of a hand, but she thought that was too farfetched to believe herself, so she thought it was wrong. And something and transforming. She couldn't pick out the rest of that detail, just the words 'transforms into'. I said 'They… detain into... coffin in... down... hall… lab… sleep.' And then it just ended right there, with more pages to spare. She flipped it over to see the back of the suede journal, to see bloodstains on it. She dropped it in the table immediately, wrinkling her nose in disgust.

She then thought a minute, curious about what 'coffin', 'down', 'hall', and 'lab' could mean when put together, so she thought there might be a room down the hall from the lab. She went out of the lab, a shiver running down her spine as she walked, so she shut the door and looked around at the walls, tracing her hand along the right side. She walked and walked, seeing too much of nothing, until her fingers hit an unfamiliar crevice, so she looked at it. It was shaped like a door, so she figured it was. She tried just to push it open, but it was too heavy and stuck from all those years. She placed her shoulder against the door, and with all her strength she shoved it open, heaving with light grunts and sighs. Finally it was open enough to squeeze in, and she gasped lightly at what she saw. There lay four coffins on stands; three were open with skeletons either hanging out or just lying there, and one in the center, closed still. She gulped lightly, seeing that the closed coffin didn't look so dirty or as old as the other ones. As if it had been taken care of for a while, but why just that one?

She walked over to it, touching it in all of her idiocy, still curious as to how humble it appeared to be compared to the other ones, tidy and kept- for. Her palms grew sweaty as she wanted to slide the top off to see inside. She grabbed the edges and thought once again about it.

'C'mon, if it's a dead body you're going to scream or something, and if it's decaying you'll puke!' She told herself. She shrugged it off, being her rambunctious little self, and she slid the top down to the bottom end, only revealing a face and shoulders. Her eyes widened, but then she started to feel remorse. The man inside looked so young, and he was so pale, he couldn't be alive in a place like this. It appeared as though he wasn't breathing; she mostly took a guess because it didn't seem like he was, and she wasn't about ready to get close to him to find out. His eyes, as they were closed, look so delicate and peaceful, and his seemingly long black hair looked so smooth and shiny and clean. He couldn't have been dead long down here, because it wasn't damaged. His skin was so fair and elegant, as in it was flawless, and the neck of his shirt surely came up above his chin. She sighed sadly, her hands still placed on the edges, one near his shoulder. She believed there was nothing more to see, and she wanted to leave before she found out anything about him and how he died so she would be depressed for a long time after that. She turned around and began to walk away slowly, her hand still on the edge of the coffin, when something cold and metallic grabbed her wrist suddenly. She turned around, heart pounding, with a loss of breath.

_Tell me how it was._

_-Illus._


	2. Double Rescue

_Thanks so much for reading chapter one, to those of you who did. And thanks to those who commented. ;3_

_The re-release of Chapter Two. _

_I don't own anything._

Ch2

Her eyes were open widely, mouth propped open but sadly at a loss for words and breath. That hand was on her wrist, cold and hard. She stared at it, in all of its unnatural monstrousness, wanting to be free from the grasp, but for some strange reason she couldn't break free. It was as though all her strength had left her and she was paralyzed. She saw an ivory human hand rise to the edge of the coffin cover, slowly pushing it off. She clenched her teeth, sweat trickling down her forehead, fear trapped in her heart. Aeris felt the metallic claw give a little bit, and she immediately thrust her hand to her side and ran before the man got up. She squeezed through the door, stumbling a bit, looking left and right, thinking that maybe he will go to the entrance, believing that she would go to get out instead of run into the laboratory just to get stuck. So she turned left and lightly snuck into the lab, right behind the center table and between a wall and a cabinet.

She hugged her knees close to her, actually hearing her heart beat. She tried to keep even her breathing quiet, but in all her fear, she couldn't help but make a faint noise of a whimper in the back of her throat. Her hair fell in front of her face, so she fixed it quickly, sitting there, waiting for a sign to scream that it was okay to come out. She started to catch her breath again after a few minutes, so she decided to herself that maybe he gave up and went back to sleep or being dead again. She got up and dusted herself off, wiping her forehead along the way, and shakily put one foot ahead of the other.

She got to the doorway and started to turn out when she ran into something. She looked up slowly with a whimper and big teary eyes, and she found herself staring into his pale face. She screamed, making his eyes widen, and she ran to the staircase, going up them quite clumsily, almost falling about twice, and then ran through the doorway. She was too busy screaming and running in fret that she ran into the chair, falling to the ground fast, hitting her head on the floor and passing out.

She awoke what seemed to be only a few minutes later with a headache and a big red bump on her forehead. She looked at the ceiling glumly, her vision still focusing, and saw that she was still in the mansion, but in a different area. She looked left and saw a dirty old window, and ripped, familiar looking wallpaper. Her ears popped lightly and she moaned a bit, although she started to hear the piano playing.

Aeris froze in her thoughts and actions for a minute, not wanting to believe what was in her mind at that moment. She turned to the right lightly, more with her eyes than her entire head, and she saw it. There he was, that man with the raven hair, sitting at the piano as if his being 'dead' was okay. She just stared at him. Something compelled her from looking away, and she just watched his every move. Who was this man, and how could he be living in a place like this so long? With no one to talk to, or no one to share compassion with? Her thoughts were interrupted by his gaze catching her own. She gasped lightly, and he stopped suddenly, standing tall. He walked to her silently, as if he was hovering, and she tried to inch away, but her back hit the ends of the couch. She looked back at the wall, cursing it in her mind, and then back to him, who was now right in front of her. She whimpered, staring fearfully into his eyes. They gleamed ember in what little sunlight that was shining through those fogged windows, and she knew there was something different about him. It was that something that made her want to get away from there before he did something. Her hand crept to the edge of the couch, yet his eyes were still fixated on hers. She decided now was a good time to leap up and run past him before he could make his way out. She slipped through the doorway, leaving him standing there, and slammed the tall doors shut, clumsily pushing the chair by the doors under the knob to keep it shut... hopefully. She stopped and held her head; it was throbbing, and she could barely think straight. She shook it off and limped down to the stairs, running her hand down the rail for support.

Suddenly walking became such a burden, and even that she couldn't do. She fell to her knees, her right hand still on the rail, leaning against the columns in between, her left hand holding her forehead. She moaned lightly, closing her eyes tightly and clenching her teeth. Her head hurt her so badly. It felt as though someone ripped open her skull and drunkenly put it back together just to get the job done. She attempted to put her weight back on her feet, but paced her self as not to rush her body into passing out. She managed to stand and she looked around, but things were a bit blurry and seemed to move in circles. She shook it off and decided to press on down the stairs, stepping down slowly as if she were years beyond her age. Now both of her hands were placed on the railing as she made her way down. She thought she had the hang of it, but once she got arrogant, she skipped a step and tumbled down, landing on the bottom of the staircase with a thud. She lay there, moaning and grumbling, cursing everything about today, which wasn't something she did often. After a while of lying, she sat up and started rising to her feet, which was a little bit easier than it was before. Although, she sensed a presence that wasn't familiar to what she felt before, but she couldn't see a thing, her vision still blurred a bit. She looked around frantically, until she was hit to the other side of the room.

She screamed as she flew, grappling her hands to the floor, keeping her body up a bit. She looked around, and with her vision impaired, no staff to back her up, and her head hurting so she was unable to use magic, she was weakened and defenseless. Aeris couldn't tell what was going on around her, so she tried to protect herself by backing up against a wall. She heard her attacker hiss violently, and make oddly placed footsteps along its path. She heard it getting closer and closer, until the crash of the two doors being thrown out became prominent, and she heard a thud in front of her, along with a slashing noise mixed with the splurge of blood. She heard a shrill of a scream of some demon, and it echoed through her ears, which made her grab her head again. When she looked up, she could see better than before, and she saw some semi-human creature in a red cape and black pants standing before her. It was tall and seemingly built, with long demonic claws on its hand. It dropped the other monster, it landing with a lifeless crash onto the floor. The semi-human 'thing' turned around to her. Its eyes were red, fangs in its mouth, its skin gray and black, gangly black hair, and his other claw was made out of a metal of some sort, and it dripped with blood. They stared each other down, the demon and Aeris, until the demon's eyes turned light ember, and his skin slowly faded to ivory, his face becoming fair and flawless, his nose into that of a faery's, his pale little lips, and his claw turning into that of a human's hand. The eyes of the man watched her for one second more, until his body grew weak and he started to fall. She jumped at him with a light gasp, holding her breath, catching him in her arms. She lay his head on her left forearm, his upper body resting on her lap, her free right arm over his body. She looked at him, confused. Did he really just save her.?

Cloud and Tifa were looking at the flowers in front of the shop. They were mostly all pink, but you could find an occasional yellow or blue. Tifa breathed in deeply, putting her hands behind her back and stretching outwards a bit, looking up at the sky. Cloud didn't notice what she was doing, and instead knelt down to smell a pink flower. He wrinkled his nose in a sudden outburst of sneezes, making Tifa jump and slip to the ground ditzy-like. Cloud rubbed his nose cutely, sighing afterwards, until he saw Tifa sitting there. He held out his hand to her, and she took it. She jumped up too fast and bumped into him (which wouldn't be that hard to do anyway). They looked into each other's eyes for a minute, blushing lightly, chuckling stupidly at each other. All of a sudden they heard a gate screech open, and they both turned to the mansion. There stood Aeris, trying desperately to hold some man up in her small, muscle-less arms. They looked at each other, then back to Aeris, speedily approaching her with worry.

"Who is that?" Tifa asked her immediately.

"I don't know..! But... he needs our help!" She said, still dragging him past the two. "…and it would be best if you'd help me instead of block me..!" She said arrogantly at the two of them. They both blinked a few times before they moved to her side, Cloud helping Aeris by taking the man's other arm over his shoulder, and Tifa opened the door to the hotel. Aeris and Cloud stumbled upstairs into the room Aeris had reserved for herself (Cloud said the man could take his room, but Aeris insisted.), and they lay him down on her bed, fixing his limbs so they weren't dangling or anything like that. Aeris sighed heavily, closing her eyes and sitting in the chair on the other side of the room. Tifa and Cloud stared at the man, then back to Aeris, then back to the man again.

". He was in the mansion..?" Cloud asked Aeris dumbly.

"Yes. He saved me." She looked upon him now, her face somewhat emotionless, besides hints of thankfulness. Cloud looked upon her still.

"…you went in there?"

"I wanted to. It's a very pretty place, and I'm surprised someone doesn't..."

"Well, I don't see why you went in there." He cut her off. "Even more, I don't understand how someone could be living in there." Tifa and Cloud stood there for a while, both thinking that someone would break the silence, but no one did. Aeris just sat there, looking at the man lying in her bed. Tifa grew bored and tugged on Cloud's arm, catching his gaze and she nodded to the door. They said their good-byes to Aeris before they left her, shutting the door solemnly. Aeris stood up, going to her little sink, and she grabbed a rag, wetting it down a bit, and she cleaned his hand of the blood that it was drenched with. She unlatched his collar, slowly taking off his cape, being careful not to wake him up, if he would at all, and she carefully sat it on the chair. She drew up her hand to his face, brushing the hair from his face and behind him. She cleaned the rag thoroughly and she gently placed it, now folded neatly, upon his forehead, to keep him cool and well. She sat there for a while, looking at his eyes, peacefully shut, and this time she could see him slowly breathing. She looked down to his hand, and they weren't typical manly, scarred hands. They were delicate and frail in appearance, not a scratch on them. She turned his hand over so his palm was facing up, and she ran her finger over the lines in his hand. She smiled lightly, resting her hand atop of his.

_I hope the third chapter stands up against this one._

_Let me know how it read._

_-Illus._


	3. On Dreaming and Waking

_I apologize in advance for this one._

_It's been two years, as I've said, since I've picked this story up, so this chapter may be a little off kilter compared to the other ones. _

_Also, I debated a neat plot, but then I realized that it wouldn't work, with all the years and everything… ;(_

_Thanks again to those who commented and the like. It means a lot._

_Eh, I hope this one is just as good._

Ch3

The window above the bed caught her eyes for a moment. She tilted her head to peer up as a bird flew by gracefully, causing her to smile slightly. She looked back at the man, studying the soft incline of the bridge of his nose. She started to feel a twinge again, in which she was forced to place her hand on her forehead and gently rub her skin. She started to feel weaker and weaker by the second, and eventually fell forward onto the man's arm.

When she opened her eyes, she was outside. The air was crisp, and the grass was green. She looked around, a clean breeze catching her hair from her. She grabbed onto her braid, which had fallen over her shoulder, and started through the town of Nibelhiem, which appeared strangely restored. She watched some birds eating some feed on the ground, two others fighting over a worm fresh out of the ground. A dog ran by and then noticed her. He ran up to her, begging for some simple attention. She giggled slightly and patted him on the head, he panting with his tongue hanging out. He ran away to a little girl that had called to him.

Her happy gait was interrupted when she saw some people leave the mansion out of the corner of her eye. This caused her to wonder where everyone was -- where that man was. Why was she outside in the first place? She turned around sharply, forgetting about her throbbing head, and ran back to where the hotel was. Once she got there, she flung open the door. She looked around worriedly, nobody in sight.

"Excuse me...?" She heard a small voice ask. "... Can I... Help you with something, young miss?" She turned around, and an old woman was approaching her, a cane as her support against gravity. Aeris searched through her mind, unable to remember seeing this old woman previously.

"Uhm... yes. This... IS the hotel, correct?"

"Hotel? Goodness, no, miss. You must have this town mistaken." The old woman nodded slightly. "I raised my children in this home." This shot through Aeris's mind. Not a hotel?

Without thinking of what to say, or perhaps having the inability to think of what to say, Aeris ran back out the door and straight to the mansion. The two people, she had noticed, had already left, since they were completely out of sight in any direction. She flung the gate open, which did not make a sound this time, and ran through the door. She stopped upon entering, seeing that the chandelier was still hung, and lit, and the house looked rather lively. There was no dust, the whites where white, and there were no boards sticking up through the floor. She knew where she was going -- to the bottom. She ran up the stairs, pushed a toppled chair out of her way, and shoved the stone door open. She ran down the spiral walkway and through the eerie hall, only to find that the hidden door was open. She went slowly inside, not wanting to make a noise. The room smelled less old, but still older than new. The four coffins were still in tact, the three nearer to the door closed. Aeris walked slowly over to the coffin the young man had been found in, thinking maybe she would find him. The coffin was open, and no one was inside. She touched the inside slowly, feeling the velvet interior against her soft skin. She thought for a moment while doing this. Where did he go? What happened to the others? Why doesn't my head hurt anymore?

Just then she heard an aggravated cry from the library. She stared at the door for a minute, frozen in the stance she was in. Another sound was heard, as if something had been thrown across a room. She exited the small chamber and turned toward the laboratory, seeing that everything was freshly broken and massacred. There was fresh blood on the operating table, on the pieces of random glass on the floor, smeared against the corner leading into the library.

She continued slowly to the library, edging the walls so as to not be noticed in any shadow. Her hand scraped against some cold splattered blood on the wall. Her nose wrinkled upright, but she continued on. The cries of the person became more prominent as Aeris grew closer. It sounded like a younger man, weeping solemnly about something. She turned the bloody corner, seeing the silhouette of a person bent over in front of the fireplace, which was lit, and the young man had his back turned to her. She walked further down the hall, stepping over numerous piles of books. Her foot accidentally hit a book, causing her to fall to the floor. She caught herself with her hands and knees, pulling herself slowly back up from the ground. The young man had noticed the noise and rushed over to her. Aeris backed away, but he was too fast. He pinned her against the wall, his unkempt hair sticking to his face because of the tears on his cheeks and rubbed all over his eyes. His eyes were bloodshot and ember, blood all over his clothes and body. He was breathing heavily, sounding choked and weary.

"... Why did you do this to me?" His voice creaked slowly, torn from screaming and crying. Aeris's eyes widened, confused by what he just said. She started to inch away.

"I-I don't know what you're---" As she shook her head side to side sympathetically, his hands went immediately to her shoulders to hold her back. She winced when his left hand on her right shoulder startled her. It was sharp and cold, feeling metallic in all. The points of his fingers on his claw were digging into her skin through her clothing.

"Why did you do this to me?" He demanded harder this time, pushing her back a bit against the bookshelf. She looked up at him, tears streaming down his face. "...Why did you do this to me...?" He trailed off sadly. He started to lower his head, ashamed, beginning to lean it against her shoulder. She closed her eyes.

When she opened them, she was back in the hotel, her head lying atop of the man's soft arm. Her head was still throbbing, so she just turned her face toward his torso. She sighed lightly, feeling comforted that it was just a dream. She breathed in again, relaxed, noticing the smell on his wardrobe. The smell triggered a memory of her dream. The man who held her against the shelf. The man who saved her. The man lying on the bed that she, too, was lying on. She pushed herself up from the bed and looked him over. His unkempt hair, his fair skin, his drawn-up lips. She didn't understand what her dream was about, but he was in it. She extended her right arm towards his left, which was pushed in between the wall and his body. She started from his shoulder and worked her way down, her fingers gently grazing his clothing and skin. Once she got to the inside of his elbow, her fingers ran over something hard and cold. She picked up his cape that was covering that part of his arm and gazed at his claw. She kept running her fingers over the metallic hand, watching the trail of her fingerprint glide across, and she would then follow it back to clean it.

She kept thinking about the dream she had. Why him? What happened? Was that even real? She stared into his face longer, taking the image to her mind so she would never forget. His eyes started to twitch a bit, so she watched. His hand moved toward his waist, then followed up to his eyes. He rubbed his eyes softly, tracing his hand to the side of the bed and propped himself slightly up. Aeris continued to watch him, having moved her chair back a little ways and making sure her staff was right behind her, just in case. He opened his eyes slightly, making it seem as though he couldn't see that well. He winced his eyes, staring at Aeris.

"... Lucercia..." He whispered under his breath in Aeris's direction. He blinked a few times before he quickly turned to look at the foot of the bed, ashamed of the fact that he was wrong. Aeris looked at him worriedly, inching the chair a little nearer to the bed. He slightly moved his head to look at her, dragging his sight up her pink dress. She had her hands gathered in her lap, patiently waiting for another word from him, being silent. His eyes were stuck on her elegant fingers, the curves in her soft hands. She was so familiar to him. She bent forward a little bit to catch his gaze.

"... A-Are you all right?" She asked almost silently, not wanting her sudden outburst of words to shatter their ears once compared to the dead silence. He looked up at her in a daze, his ember eyes glowing with fire. He just stared deeply at her, falling into her eyes, having caught her gaze after so long, this grown woman he seemed so familiar…

_Geh, I'll be honest. I don't know where I am going with this one..._

_In time, though, I know I'll think of something. ;)_

_I've aspired to make a good Aeris & Vincent story too long to just give up on it._

_How was it…? ;(_


End file.
